§ MR. DAWSON (Leeds, E.)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, If the Secretary to the Board of Customs in 1883 informed the senior redundant clerks who had been induced to join the new Outdoor Department as First Class Examining Officers that the contemplated reduction in the Class of Surveyors would be made by dropping only one vacancy in three, so as to mitigate to some extent the injury inflicted by the partial withdrawal of the chief inducement which led to their accepting important alterations in their conditions of service; and, if it is the intention of the Board of Customs to depart from this promise?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. HENRY H. FOWLER) (Wolverhampton, E.)I have referred this Question to the Board of Customs, and am informed by them that they have inquired of their Secretary as to the communication which took place in 1883 between him and the redundant clerks as to the reduction in the number of surveyors; and he states that what he told them was that when, some years ago, large reductions had been made in 441 some of the upper ranks in the Navy, the reductions had been gradually effected by dropping one vacancy in three, and that the Board might, perhaps, adopt some such course in dealing with the surveyors.